The Body Count In Syria

It's growing at a rapid pace, according to Jon Lee Anderson. Last weekend there were reports of "mass executions of as many as four hundred suspected rebels and civilians, including children, by regime forces in the town of Daraya near Damascus":

If there were ever gloves on in the regime’s response to unrest, they have now definitely come off. Indeed, everything about Syria’s carnage has acquired an exponential quality, including the death toll, which now must be rapidly approaching twenty-one thousand. Around two hundred people, mostly civilians, are reportedly dying every day now, twice as many as in June. Until Daraya, the hallmark horror was the May 25th massacre of a hundred and eight civilians in the town of Houla. The new standard is four times that.

(Photo: Paramedics treat a Syrian man who was wounded during shelling by Syrian government forces, at a hospital in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on August 30, 2012. The battle for Aleppo, Syria's second largest city, has been raging since July 20, with the army unable to dislodge the rebels. Civilians have been the hardest hit by the fighting. By Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images.)